Wednesday, February 07, 2007

With 24 points in only 23 minutes of play on Tuesday, Stephen Curry set a new Davidson record for most points scored by a freshman as he now has 502 on the season. As John Kilgo carefully put it in the postgame, "this game never really was a game," with Davidson running out to a big lead in the first half and ultimately defeating the Chattanooga Mocs 87-57.

The story of the night was Davidson's defense spearheaded by 6-6 jitterbug, Max Paulhus Gosselin. Davidson forced 30 turnovers on the game, including 21 in the first half, and converted 37 points off of those turnovers. Chattanooga shot a respectable 54% from the field, however they didn't really take many shots.

As Davidson broke down the Chattanooga zone early on in the contest, the Mocs became very frustrated on both ends of the court and began to make stupid errors. Passes were thrown straight to Davidson defenders, Wildcat post-men were routinely left open as they cut through the paint. It was as if the Mocs just lost their soul and decided to wait for the Elons and Western Carolinas of the world. The game also featured a total of 47 combined fouls on each team.

With the victory, the Wildcats put even more space between themselves and second-place Appalachian State. With one game to play with (Appalachian State has the tie-breaker), Davidson has a little bit less pressure as they head into Charleston on Monday. That doesn't mean that the Wildcats won't play to win. They have had the Cougars' number in recent years and they know that the College of Charleston have been waiting on this game ever since January 6th.